Reviews

Know My Name by Chanel Miller

tnorks's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

5.0

rschwartzbard's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

amandajyu's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

5.0

i don’t normally give memoirs star reviews but this one warrants it. i’m also obsessed with the cover and how it mimics kintsugi - the japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold to demonstrate it has been broken but put back together and it makes it even more beautiful

nosidda555's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

5.0

This book was so good I even read through all the acknowledgements. So powerful!

heidilreads's review against another edition

4.0

This is good in that frustrating way... Why is it that if a woman is raped or assaulted, her attire, her actions come into question? Why is she required to prove her innocence? Why is the male presumed innocent? Not that she answers this, but...

kristiemadly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

5.0

kimochiwarui's review against another edition

I have thought about it and I don't think I will assign a star amount to memoirs.

However, this was an incredible read. So many of the quotes will stick with me forever. I felt dread, I felt exhaustion, I felt disbelief, I felt anger, I felt so many emotions with Miller.

When I die, leave my body to the wolves. The wolves will be gentler than any man.

shailydc's review against another edition

5.0

I hope everyone reads this book.

acoops's review against another edition

4.0

This was a beautiful, frustrating, and incredibly important read. I was pleasantly surprised by how articulate Chanel is as a writer, having not known her background, nor having read her victim impact statement.

I avoided 5 stars because I felt it rambled at times, but I also don’t think it’s my (or anyone else’s) place to tell her what parts of her story should have been omitted.

milliecrystal's review against another edition

4.0

4.5 stars. It sometimes feels weird rating a memoir, especially when it's about something so personal..."like thanks for sharing all the traumatic and detailed parts of the awful things that happened to you but I'm only gunna rate it 2 stars" seems quite harsh. Luckily Chanel Miller is actually a good writer. I even felt like there were some moments (despite the premise of this book being super traumatic) where you can see how Chanel makes a good comedian too.

There were times, even reading her impact statement that made me chuckle - mainly because the stuff she was highlighting, either about Brock or his defence were so ridiculous it was funny, but she was able to write about it in a way still credible to the point she was making. What she went through though is nothing short of horrific and some parts where really uncomfortable to read, so I can't imagine how horrible it would have been to actually experience, but I loved the way it seems as though she overcame everything she went through (I certainly hope so at least) and took us on that journey with her.

I'm sure there will be lots of people out there who she has helped by writing this book. The only reason I don't feel like I can give this book 5 stars is due to the lack of detail surrounding the trigger warnings especially given that this actually happened and wasn’t fiction. What she went through was awful and for some people, reading it may be too much, so a more detailed warning of the topics discussed is essential and could have been laid out better.